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Religion

“There can never be any real opposition between religion and science; for the one is the complement of the other. Every serious and reflective person realizes, I think, that the religious element in his nature must be recognized and cultivated if all the powers of the human soul are to act together in perfect balance and harmony. And indeed it was not by accident that the greatest thinkers of all ages were deeply religious souls” - Max Planck

No matter where and how far we look, nowhere do we find a contradiction between religion and natural science. On the contrary, we find a complete concordance in the very points of decisive importance. Religion and natural science do not exclude each other, as many contemporaries of ours would believe or fear. They mutually supplement and condition each other. The most immediate proof of the compatibility of religion and natural science, even under the most thorough critical scrutiny, is the historical fact that the very greatest natural scientists of all times—men such as Kepler, Newton, Leibniz—were permeated by a most profound religious attitude." - Max Planck

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”- Einstein

Intro: Heaven aka The Mothership

How large is the city? That varies slightly depending on the version of the Bible. The ESV and NIV versions say it is 12,000 stadia in length and width(Rev. 21:16), where a stadia is 607 feet. This translates to 1,400 miles, which is what the NLT Bible says. However, the KJV and other versions say 12,000 furlongs, which translates to 1,500 miles.

Regardless of whether the city is 1,400 miles or 1,500 miles in length and width, it is shaped like a square at the base. This means New Jerusalem is larger than India with nearly 2 million square miles. These measurements are meant to be literal since they are described as man's measurements(Rev. 21:17).Even more astounding than the size at the base is the height that is also at least 1,400 miles(Rev. 21:16). This goes well beyond Earth's atmosphere and into space. If a building in the city is this high and has a generous 12 feet per story, the building would be over 600,000 stories!

Another interpretation - The measurement of the city described in Revelation chapters 21 and 22 is 12,000 furlongs. A furlong is 1/8 th of a mile. This makes the city about 1500 miles square, or 1500 miles in all directions. That is quite a large city. The total land area of the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, is 3,717,796 sq miles. The literal land area of the city described in Revelation would be 2,250,000 sq miles. That would make the city a somewhat larger than 1/2 the size of the United States. In addition to that the wall of the city described in Revelation is 1500 miles high. That is an extremely high wall considering that most commercial airliners fly at an altitude of about 7 to 8 miles.

"I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows. 3And I know that this man—whether in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows— 4was caught up into Paradise. The things he heard were too sacred for words, things that man is not permitted to tell." - 2 Corinthians 12